


We Belong Among the Water (And This Summer Will Make Us Stronger)

by dramaqueenminyard



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fluff, M/M, beach au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-14
Updated: 2016-06-14
Packaged: 2018-07-14 22:37:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7193723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dramaqueenminyard/pseuds/dramaqueenminyard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mathew and Noah hadn't actually meant to keep their relationship a secret.</p><p>Or, the one where Matthew and Noah are dating and try to come out on a beach trip.</p>
            </blockquote>





	We Belong Among the Water (And This Summer Will Make Us Stronger)

**Author's Note:**

> In this, Noah was brought back with Gansey. 
> 
> Title from Soul Fazed by Jessica Hart

Mathew and Noah hadn't actually meant to keep their relationship a secret. They hadn't exactly been subtle about it. How many times had one of their friends walked in to see them tangled up together on the couch? The answer was many, many times, so it should be obvious. But, both Matthew and Noah were cuddly creatures by nature, and would have been hugging anyone had they been there. It just made sense for the two of them to cuddle; it was just a matter of convenience. Well, it might have been a bit more than that. Two months before Helen Gansey had the chance to spend an afternoon with Henry Cheng and the Grand Vacation Plan was put into action, Matthew and Noah were sitting on the floor of the younger's Aglionby dorm, drinkin sodas and watching videos of baby koalas on Matthew's laptop. Noah was there for these reasons: one, because Ronan and Adam were at the barns and Henry, Blue, and Gansey were at Monmouth, and he didn't want to third wheel (or, in the latter's case, fourth wheel. they were a perfectly happy tricycle.) two, because dying for seven years and spending that time as a ghost most people couldn't see had meant that once he was brought back, he didn't have very many friends. And so, he spent his time with the youngest Lynch brother, who was quickly becoming his favorite. Matthew had laughed at something the koala bear had done, and Noah was struck by something: he needed to kiss him. At this precise moment, Matthew had turned his head towards Noah, and they were already sitting to close together, and Noah was already leaning in. Matthew had blushed and laughed again, and Noah had smiled, finally feeling some of the energy he had had while alive rushing through his veins. This was his second chance at life, and he couldn't throw that away, had to take his chances, so he said "Be my boyfriend?" And it was settled.

The Grand Vacation Plan consisted of this: two weeks, a pastel yellow beach house complete with a cheesy beach house name (The Yellow Flamingo), two Gansey siblings and their three significant others and two Lynch siblings and their boyfriends. It remained that no one knew of Noah and Matthew's romance, in the same way no one knew of who exactly Helen was bringing to the beach house until she arrived, pretty and dark haired, only a little larger than Blue and with a rather surprising diamond on her ring finger that matched well with Helen's own. Her name was Vera, and everyone was immediately taken to her. The Yellow Flamingo had four bedrooms; one king sized bed, two queens, and a room with two twins. It was easy enough to divide them up, the king sized bed to Henry, Blue, and Gansey, one of the queens to Adam and Ronan, the other to Helen and Vera, and the twins to Matthew and Noah. (While it was quite the feat to fit two teenage boys into one twin bed, they managed. They had plenty of experience curling up together in Matthew's tiny dorm bed, anyway.) 

Mornings on The Grand Vacation were peaceful things. Noah was the first to wake up, being the morning person he is, and Matthew followed soon after him. They would spend those first long minutes together, waking up slowly and trading sweet nothings and cuddles, until Noah got hungry enough get out of bed. Helen would be wide awake by now, her hair flawlessly done and eating some sort of protein cereal with fruit in it. Her fiancé would be beside her, sporting a messy bed head and eating a cinnamon roll and drinking far too many cups of coffee. Noah would pour both his and Matthew's cereal, the one with the most sugar they could find, and Helen and Vera would somehow miss when Matthew kissed his boyfriend in thanks. Gansey would stumble into the room next, with the distinct look of someone who had gotten very lucky the night before. Henry would follow, with a smile that competed with Noah's own for the title of Resident Morning Person. Then Blue, with hair matching Vera's, heading straight for the fridge to get her yogurt. Helen would say "I'm heading out for my morning run. Wanna come, babe?" And Vera would scowl and say "no thanks." Henry would offer to go along, and Helen would smile proudly at him and say something that was meant to embarrass her brother. No one would question what Adam and Ronan were doing, because they had a pretty good idea, and no one wanted to think about that. On this particular morning, Adam and Ronan had showed up earlier than usual, and took Gansey's offer to take them to a lighthouse with "incredible historic value" with only minor complaining. Blue and Vera were watching some reality show Vera was openly obsessed with and Blue was secretly obsessed with, which left only Noah and Matthew to do whatever they wanted. "Beach?" Matthew questioned, and Noah was given the feeling once again that he might never be able to say no to him. Plus, he wasn't about to ignore an opportunity to see his boyfriend shirtless. 

Leave it to Matthew Lynch to make a friend in his first five minutes on the beach. Her name was Amelia, and she'd originally showed up while Matthew was feeding birds and Noah was watching him, in order to flirt with Noah. This plan had failed, as a few seconds into the conversation Noah had pointed to where Matthew was trying to pet a sea gull and said "that's my boyfriend, Noah." Amelia had said "He's cute." And Noah had said, "I know!" Then Amelia had walked over and started to feed sea gulls with them, and she and Matthew had begun to talk cheerfully. 

The next morning, Matthew and Noah had tried to let everyone know of their relationship. They had kissed, (no one was watching) cuddled, (nothing out of the ordinary about that) they had even held hands for Christ's sake! (no one even blinked at it.) It was Opal who first caught on, strangely. Adam and Ronan had been skyping her while she stayed at Fox Way, and while they joined the others in their frisbee game Matthew had taken the computer. Noah had walked behind him and patted him on the head, and Matthew had smiled up at his boyfriend. "Matthew," Opal had said, very seriously, "do you like Noah?" He had smiled and said, "Very much." He hoped she would mention it to Ronan, though it was becoming abundantly clear that they just needed to sit everyone down as tell them. 

That night, Helen had declared that they all needed to go to a nice restaurant ("if I have to eat seafood or fast food one more time, I'm going to scream.") and as had become a common occurrence, Henry agreed with her immediately. The restaurant was nice, and Noah thought about how nice it would be if it was just him and Matthew, here on a date, instead of him, Matthew, and literally all of his other friends. Things were going rather well, and Noah was trying to decide whether or not they should tell everyone now, when someone else decided for him. 

"Matthew! Noah!" Amelia nearly ran over to their table, and Matthew jumped up to hug her. The two had already started talking cheerfully, and before Noah could join them, Ronan said, "Gonna introduce us to your girlfriend, Matthew?" He was just teasing, and of course he knew Amelia wasn't actually Matthew's girlfriend, but before these things could be explained, Amelia spoke up. "I'm Amelia, and I'm not his girlfriend. Noah wouldn't be too happy about that!" There was shocked silence for a second, while everyone tried to make sense of what she'd just said. Amelia missed the awkwardness of the situation and continued, "I actually tried to flirt with Noah the first time I met him. He was like, 'umm cool but that's my boyfriend.'" No one speaks for a few more seconds, until Gansey points at Noah and says "Why didn't you tell us?" Matthew answers him, "We tried to!" Amelia looks painfully awkward now, and starts to leave. "Sorry! I'll just... let you guys work this out."   
More silence passes, until Blue started laughing loudly, Henry joined, and soon the whole table was laughing. Most everyone in the restaurant had been watching them, but they were laughing to hard to care. The Grand Vacation ended up going quite well.

**Author's Note:**

> Hit me up on tumblr panizzylightwood.tumblr.com


End file.
